1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for stabilizing barges used for drilling for undersea oil. More specifically, the invention is directed to stabilizing such barges despite a variety of harsh environmental conditions.
2. Related Art
In the field of continental shelf oil drilling, various techniques have been employed to attempt to stabilize oil drilling platforms. However, conventional stabilization systems have not efficiently dealt with extreme conditions, such as soft sea bottoms, earthquake survivability, high winds, ice flows, and substantial differences between high tide and low tide. The damage to or loss of a drilling platform is extremely costly in both monetary and human terms. With the ongoing depletion of fossil fuel reserves in readily-accessible and friendlier environments, there is a growing need to provide systems and methods for stabilizing and protecting oil drilling platforms, despite extreme environmental conditions.
The invention described hereinafter fulfills this need. Conventional arrangements are not believed to disclose the combination of features, or provide the advantages, that are provided by the invention. U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,806 and Re. 30,823 (Guy et al.) disclose pumping water out of tubes so that workers can weld parts of a leg together (see FIG. 13 and bottom half of column 6 of the text). FIGS. 100-102 and the text bridging columns 33 and 34 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,180 (Sumner) disclose how water is forced out of a chamber using forced air, to allow a worker to apply sealant between a piling 185 and a lower guide member 186. More generally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,720 (Ostgaard) and Ostgaard shows the general concept of welding sections of legs together. U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,282 (Pardue, Sr. et aL) discloses a system of driving a pile that involves forcing compressed air into a hollow pile that has already penetrated the marine floor, and then venting the air to allow resulting hydrostatic pressure to further drive the pile.
Despite these disparate teachings, no conventional arrangement is believed to provide a practical, comprehensive system and method of stabilizing an oil drilling platform in a variety of hostile environmental conditions.